“If an affected airbag deploys the increased internal pressure may cause the inflator to rupture.

“In the event of an inflator rupture metal fragments could be propelled into the passenger compartment potentially causing injury to a vehicle occupant.”

Letter to customers

A letter from Toyota sent to customers regarding recalling her Toyota Yaris, states that it is ‘currently in the process of acquiring a sufficient number of replacement parts’ to replace the airbag inflators.

A spokesman from Toyota said that recalls have been issued in the past for vehicles older than seven years old.

He said: “The cause of this abnormal deployment is the subject of multiple investigations by Toyota and others, including the industry-wide joint testing initiative.

“Various hypotheses are being explored and the findings will be announced as soon as the root cause is positively identified.

“When we are made aware of a potential issue then we remedy this. We know it provides reassurance to Toyota owners that we take action if issues are identified that affect customer safety.

“We have processes in place to collate data and depending on the type of issue this can take longer to identify particularly if this occurs under specific circumstances such as an airbag deployment.